Great Local Bike Commentary

There has been a number of great commentaries, articles, and videos popping up lately about the increase of cycling as a mode of transportation and sharing the road.  Here is one that was on VPR this morning.

Commentary Series: Martin: Bike Revolution

weekend project

I spent some time this weekend at the kids school building an outdoor classroom for the kindergarteners.  Mark had the vision and he and I started on Thursday for a few hours.  Had to work on Friday but by the end of Saturday we almost had it licked.  The project was constructing and arranging some simple benches from material left over from the much more substantial gazebo type outdoor classroom built by the Principal Brian Williams and volunteers during the midst of a heatwave earlier this summer. 

I'm happy with how they turned out and it was fun.  Now for photographic evidence.

notching

 

I went mountain biking this week.  I literally needed to dust off the ol' bike before riding since it has been almost a year since I've ridden it.  The skinny tire bikes have been pulling the majority of the duty.  But it has sparked something in me and served as a test.  I can ride to the trails and spin through the loop once and take that other that other short loop and ride home in an hour flat clocking in just over 11 miles.  Fun. 

I have been itching to gather friends who ride bikes and throw down on a ride that hits all of the dirt in the Burlington metro area with fun beer/skill stops and this was the test of about 1/3 of the loop.  Now to start stringing them together. 

Beach Week!

• Tiki 
• Bike rides everywhere
• The Kelp Shed
• Sand Dollar Beach for sunset
• Hiking to East Beach
• Settlers of Catan 
• Surfing
• Skimboarding
• The neighbors getting kicked out our first night
• 10 p.m. quiet hours
• Lobstah
• Run and Jump
• Stripers
• Kube
• Canned beer craze
• The Lobster House
• Canoes and Kayaks
• Crazy tidal shifts (+10')
• Driftwood forts

Pictures after the jump:

Family Vacation List

Pine Grove Cottages- Beach Lake, PA

• Wiffleball
• Halfball ( I missed the game :'( )
• Poolside
• Lake swimming
• Kyaking
• 2 bike rides with my cuz Sean
• Movie night outside (Back to the Future & ...)
• Beer (5 Kegs)
• Sausage
• Bacon
• The Echo
• Annual round of Golf (best ball) followed by Gin and Tonics
• Running with Tiff 2X  
• Slate-board quoits 
• Family- Wife and Kids, 3 grandparents, 2 parents, 1 brother (and his better half), 7 aunts and uncles,  9 cousins + 2 spouses + 3 kids, 2 family friends and their 3 kids.  Total = 37 ( it was a light year with a few cousins MIA)

• THE Olympics
• Pinochle
• Listening to Pop give Tiff a hard time about nearly everything
• History- 60 years of family vacation tradition at our 4th location (IMO the new place is second only to Bush's)
• Eagle watching each night
• Ice cream (watching Pat and Kevin eat the Quart)

The West Coast...

of New England.  It's been said that Burlington is the San Francisco of New England and that this

is it's Golden Gate Bridge.  I swear it's been said...by someone.

Take me out to the ballgame...and other things

Well in the spirit of trying to fit in as much activity as possible into one weekend I decided to take off a little early on Friday and get some important tasks done.

First I drank a beer while I gardened.

Then I rode some innercity single/double track on skinny tires, singlespeed, and that was fun.

Then it was all about hanging with the kiddos since they will be leaving on Monday to spend a week with Grandmom.  Yay! Boo! but really Yeay!

So we did what any red blooded American with a love for nuanced sports would do...We went to the old ball park.  We watch the Vermont Lake Monsters beat the State College Spikes both nights! Yeah! Good times.

P.S. this post was written in mid July. I just never posted it.

Road Trippin'

I've been out of town for a couple of weeks.  You know, on the road man.

as seen on PDW and the Acid Sweat Lodge

Photos to come.